10th Anniversary of Unity Kannada Church in Dubai & Sharjah
Report: Shodhan Prasad
Pics: Sujay Bendur
Daijiworld Media Network
Dubai, Sep 15: Unity Kannada Church, Dubai & Sharjah celebrated their 10th Anniversary at St. Martin’s Church, Sharjah on 13th September, 2008 with the blessings of Rev’d. John Weir, Senior Chaplain of Holy Trinity Church who presided the function as Chief Guest along with Max Karkada and his Family who flew all the way from Mangalore as a guest of honour.
The programme started sharp at 6.30 PM with prayers at the Church premises with hymn, praise and worship. Don Liddle, Chairman of UKC welcomed the fellow members and guests. He also called upon Children, Pastor, Chief Guest, Guest of Honour and Council Members to march towards the alter.
The entire programme was divided into two cessions, the first one being Main Service followed by other programmes on the second half.
Rev William Kunder, The Pastor for UKC in his opening Hymn 322 wished happiness, unity, peace and joy in the life of each congregation members and success to UKC on its 10th anniversary.
Rev John Weir in his prayers blessed all the members of UKC for good strength and unity on the occasion. He said “I enjoy fellowship with you all and how proud I am when I see God’s work being done, and God’s praises sung in your beautiful Kannada language.”
Philip Maben, Vice Chairman of UKC read Chapter 8 from the Holy Bible (old testament) followed by Special Song “Glory Glory to our God” sung by around 35 students of Friday School.
Godwin Jathanna, Social Committee Member read out the chapter – Epistle from the Holy Bible (New Testament) followed by Hymn 318 (offertory).
After the thanks giving prayer, there was a Tulu Choir “Unity Sabhenu Yesu E Kattua…Sarvere Kondaduverey” beautifully sung by around 25 members of UKC. Later the Pastor in his prayer spoke about the UKC and thanked the fellow members for their good deeds and also requested more participants in the future years with enthususiasam.
There was another English Choir sung by a group of 30 UKC Members which says “Praise Ye the Lord….Let all men praise His Holy Name” which was followed by Hymn 195 by Rev. Kunder and prayer by Rev’d John Weir.
Second part of the programme was being skillfully handled by the well known MC Harold Kallel who in his initial talk shared his experiences during his association with Max in the good old days when they were planning to start the church 10 years ago. He thanked Max for his support and a huge round of applause was heard from the audience.
Don Liddle in his welcome speech in English thanked the Chief Guest & Guest of Honour for attending this function. He also thanked Abu Dhabi Kannada Fellowship for their good support. He said that they are working for a place in St. Martis Church for Friday School and spoke about the current Church Services. He thanked Bhasker Kotian, Secretary of UKC for his lead role in bringing up the 10th Anniversary Souvenir. He thanked all those who had sent greeting messages on the occasion including the message from Bishop Devaraj Bangera from CSI – Karnataka Southern Diocese.
Rev John & Max were honoured by floral garland on the occasion.
Unveiling the Souvenir, Max Karkada thanked all the guests, organizers and the fellow members remembering their names and said this is the only best organized church for the fellow Kannadigas. As he rightly pointed out that he has seen fellow community people finding difficult to understand the English Prayer Services which was the only one during those days and that there should be one in Kannada for those people who can participate in the prayers. Thus how a quest for one had begun with the help of many fellow brethren and that gave birth to UKC who was chaired by himself. They had put a lot of effort and faced innumerable hurdles to organize which got a good shape later to grow continuously all these years and today celebrate its 10th anniversary.
Max with his children Shaun & Chelsea sang a special song called “God is good all the time” which received a good applause from the crowd.
Bhasker Kotian handed over a momento to Max and Jaya another senior person of the UKC. Also appreciation prizes where given to three children for attaining 80% and above in their studies.
There were songs presented by Friday School Children and Adults, Anush, Joanne, Lionelle, Rachelle, Allan, Alisha, Altan & Jovita both in English and Kannada.
Bhasker Kotian did the vote of thanks with special mention to Daiji & Gulf Kannadiga for their contribution in the media. Also mentioned are names of special guests like Sydney, Shantaram Achar, Ganesh Rai, Sujay Bendore and other members from the land of Karnataka.
Before the sumptuous buffet dinner was instrumental music by Edgar Valentine and Choir “Our God is an awesome God” which mesmerized the guests that memorable evening.
The programme was attended by huge number of fellow members and well arranged by the members including Oswald Jayaker of the organization who has done a great job in arranging.